UK & USA Today Editoweb 23 july 2009

A former SAS commander has accused the Government of failing to be honest to the military or the public about resources for British troops in Afghanistan.
Retired Brigadier Aldwin Wight claimed ministers saw their role "as actually to spin this issue rather than be honest about it". He told ITN: "I just don't think they're being honest. I don't think they're being honest with themselves, with the Armed Forces or with the public."
Meanwhile, the 19th British serviceman to be killed in Afghanistan this month has been named as Guardsman Christopher King.
The soldier, from 1st Battalion Coldstream Guards, was attached to 1st Battalion Welsh Guards. He died in an explosion on Wednesday morning while on patrol in the Nad e Ali district of central Helmand province.
Colleagues paid tribute to a "fearless soldier and ever-cheerful friend" while his parents described him as a "tremendous son."

President Barack Obama stepped up his us-against-them pitch for overhauling health care Thursday, saying the American people need it and must overcome resistance from opponents in Washington, whom he described vaguely as naysayers and skeptics.
"Reform may be coming too soon for some in Washington," Obama told hundreds who packed a high school gym in the Shaker Heights suburb of Cleveland. "But it's not soon enough for the American people."
The president took a few swipes at Republican critics. But his biggest obstacles are fellow Democrats who control the House and Senate and are moving slowly on his call for widespread changes to U.S. health care.